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Thursday, 15 March 2012

Weight Loss Group: Triggers

Firstly, I was going to get back to you with the group's response to the question posed last week: "What is the procedure for losing weight?"

What the group came up with was: "It's twofold. Find a supportive and educative group; and get a resource like the Calorie King website that we use to help you track your energy in and out."

All of group members agreed that the group support was the most important tool in weight loss. When I specifically asked: "What would be the first chapter in your best-selling weight loss book?" I was told they would all say don't read a book, go to a support group.

Now, on to tonight's topic: triggers.

Everyone who has ever had a problem with binge eating, will have trigger factors: those things that lead to the start of a binge. For many people it's stress, but it also be boredom, happiness, watching TV, almost anything you can think of.

I think I've overcome my big trigger: stress. I'd realised that I was over that when Mr Wonderful and I broke up, and I was able to look at a block of chocolate and decide I was not going to eat it.

I still have two other triggers: physical pain and fatigue. Those explain my weight gain this week. Reducing my steroids has increased both my pain and my fatigue. Why do both of these things have some sort of link in my mind with eating? Fatigue I guess makes some kind of sense - I get energy from food, I have no energy, therefore eating should help (but it doesn't.) Pain? My father had a cure-all for all kinds of pain when I was a kid - it was a Cherry Ripe. (If you're outside Australia, a Cherry Ripe is a heart attack wrapped in red foil - glace cherries and dessicated coconut in what I think is a condensed milk base, wrapped in a ton of rich dark chocolate.) I can't eat Cherry Ripes anymore, because they have lactose in them. But I still eat when I'm in pain.

I know why my triggers are triggers - what I still have to do is master the art of saying "no" and closing the fridge, just as I have done with stress.

As for the rest of the group? We did one session on stress not long ago. This week, we're going to look at identifying what still may be triggers for all of us, and why they affect us. And we're going to look at the art of saying "no".

Part of the art of saying "no" to trigger factors is to realise that there is no logical reason that food could help the situation. If I my shoulder, or my big toe, is hurting, no amount of food is going to stop it hurting. If I'm worried because a kid is late home, no amount of food will get them home any faster.

Another part of the art of saying "no" is to look at the situation we're in. Do you know it is possible to go to a movie theatre and not have popcorn and softdrink? I do it regularly now - but the first few times it felt very strange.

Sometimes our trigger is just habit. And habits can be changed - either just stopped, or substituted for something else. If you always have a big snack to relax when you get home from work, but are not actually hungry then, a piece of fruit or even a glass of mineral water will do just the same for you. The point isn't what you eat, it's that you sit down and relax at the end of the day. Alternately, you could go for a walk.

If you have a binge eating problem, what are your triggers? Perhaps there are creative ways you could defuse them.

Other blogs and books by the same author

Blogs

Patchwork

Patchwork is an anthology of short stories and poems by author and blogger Iris Carden. In this volume, you will deal with the aftermath of a dog bite in Bad Moon Rising, spend a sleepless night with The Possum in the Roof, and investigate a weird religious cult in The Time of Blood and Death. The print version of the book has a bonus story not in the eBook version.

Beside Still Waters

A book of sermons and brief reflections on Christian Scripture, by Rev Iris Carden. There is no specific order to the items in the book, they are intended to each be a "surprise" in that they are not related to the items around them. It is hoped that in each, the reader will find something new or special, or unexpected, a message from God. Rev Iris Carden has a Master's Degree in Theology and more than 10 years of experience as a Christian minister.

Cat-it-orial

Mr Bumpy is such a talented cat, he even runs his own website: mrbumpycat.com. He is a blogger, and a very bad cat. His favourite hobby is world domination. His next hobby is harassing the humans and other animals he shares a home with. In this book, you can see the world through the eyes of a megalomanicat, and some of the other animals who share his home.

Group Meeting

(Novella) In a facility for people recovering from mental illness: a group of people with sinister pasts starts to be visited by a girl who doesn't exist.

Karlee

Failing author Terry Dixon is made an offer that seems unbelievable. He can have all of his problems solved, have everything he has ever wanted, for a price. The price is something that "will not be too difficult" for him to pay - but it is not specified what it actually will be. With bills mounting up and a deadline looming, Terry agrees to a deal with something he knows nothing about.

About the Author

Iris Carden is a retired Uniting Church minister and former journalist. Lupus forced her to stop working. On good days she writes.

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This is an Australian Blog

Some of the issues, resources, information discussed may not be relevant to overseas readers. (Some things may not even be relevant outside of Queensland.)

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